Interview mit Christian F. Kocherscheidt

Well, as a family member of the shareholder, I have been involved since time immemorial. My first memory of the company here is from around the mid-1960s. I was a little kid and could watch how wire coils were rolled into the hall. So I have experienced a lot—about 35, 36 years now that I have been directly in the company. And yes, I've experienced everything, if not the beginnings, which go back further. Next year we will celebrate our 100th anniversary. But the transformation from when I joined: we were maybe 500 employees, before that even smaller, and now we are at 3,850, spread across over 35 countries.

Always projects like, for example, the team in TV Buschhütten, and we saw that it is so important and also fascinating how the hardest thing is always home. You come here, we are a company that, let's say, I like to imagine as not a small combat group fighting for survival every day. And it works best when the whole team—these 3,800 people—all pull in one direction. That's like raising children. And that means we also do things locally, whether it's a bike event or what we just did: acquiring the cinema here in Berleburg and currently renovating it, to keep something attractive in the area. For me, that is absolutely connected. And yes, we can only be successful together, whether from Wittgenstein or as far as China and Mexico.

Actually, there was even a lot of positive about it. Now, if we take a look back, think of March 2020: we were all shocked, almost frozen, nobody knew what would happen. Orders from the automotive industry completely collapsed, everything was canceled. Fortunately for us, the construction business continued because that was not a problem. So we kept going, and after two or three months, with all the measures we took—short-time work and so on—we realized we had a baseline and it started going up again. By early summer, or at latest by last summer, we fought our way out of that trough with all the aid from the state and others. By late last summer, we were in a complete boom. We have never produced as much as in the months between September 2020 and August this year. Now things have calmed down again because car plants are stopping due to microchips, but it went very well. On the positive side, despite all the contact restrictions, we could communicate internationally with team calls, we were informed daily about the corona situation at each location. That was a great sense of togetherness despite the strong distancing. The Chinese even sent us masks that we distributed to employees and the hospital here. Those were positive stories.

The most memorable is very difficult—I also like to forget things quickly, see the glass half full. But what really shaped me—the most memorable—was the entire time from the first visit to our current Thuringian location in Tambach-Dietharz. That was in January 1990, right after the Wall fell, cheered as we crossed the old border. We got to know that plant and over three years, first with the intention of founding a joint venture for the GDR, then after reunification we came together again and entered into negotiations with the Treuhand to acquire it. That huge plant—one location as big as everything we have here combined under one roof—was simply formative. It still holds strongly today; different cultures and characters, though all from the same low mountain range with spruce and bark beetles. That was very important. It's an exciting story to be part of a company that grew from small to being known worldwide in our industry. As a Berleburger, you have to pinch yourself sometimes. It's a joy to experience such a career.

That can be a real joy or a beautiful discussion about a topic. I've always been interested in that. When I was traveling, if I had time, I liked to visit galleries. Classic is when I am in Chicago, there is the Art Institute or the Museum of Contemporary Art—we always visited that together with Winfried Schwarz. That always gave me pleasure. It's more of a general interest in art. Naturally, I have preferences—I can't do much with video installations, photography or paintings are much more my thing, sculptures sometimes. But it always interests me to look at it. And also, as a company in the region, you have an interest in things happening locally.

As a mid-sized company, the essential goal in a competitive society is survival—that sounds a bit difficult, but it's a daily fight. If we stop doing something, we will fall behind in competition and that will have consequences. We are trying to reorganize to be even better. We are very international and want to become an international company also in terms of leadership. Diversity is a topic I am a big fan of. We need to look at things from different perspectives. If you're paranoid like a family business owner, it's good to recognize risks and opportunities early from both directions. We are currently reconfiguring with a new setup for 2022 onward, with a perspective for 2025. I am excited to see how we transform from a company where almost everything was decided in the gentlemen's garden in Bad Iburg to one where input from Asia, America, and other European countries is equally included. Personally, for free time, the best thing is to have two dogs—you automatically go outside, get exercise, which is the best medicine. And if I can also take out my mountain bike and ride through Wittgenstein, that's perfect.